I have this garish looking red Omega 11148 with 55/23 knot set in a cheap plastic handle. This brush sometime gave company on travel and work tours. At the price point of $6 it was not the finest boar I have and just got the job done for whatever it is worth. And no, I hardly saw any hair split on this brush, but then it hasn’t seen much action either. But almost 25 shaves on it, I wanted it to behave better and split for softer hair but no joy so far.
Omegas are not really known for nice handles so as a replacement for a nice handle and something more refined I got a Semogue 620 after reading the reviews here. Also chose 620 because I liked the knot insert cap in black colour whereas 610 was available only in red insert.
I didn’t like the fake badger effect but I knew it beforehand however what surprised me was the ‘plasticky’ and slippery feel of the hair on Semogue. I have never felt the Omega hair to be anything this smooth and plasticky feeling. Maybe because the hairs on every semogue brush are treated beyond silly?
It had little piggie funk smell but I just use the boars without pampering them for a shave. I don’t think I really liked the 620 in 50/22 knot because the treated hair were all floppy and lumpy after a rinse and the limp face feel did not convert me from Omega to Semogue.
All said, the biggest surprise was that in 3 shaves so far I had with this brush, it acted like a dodo. I used Stirling soap which is middle of road soap but nothing bad in terms of latherability. But semogue just refused to work and create a usable lather. It took me inordinate amount of elbow grease and almost triple mass of the soap to get a lather that somewhat looked like a lather I normally shave with.
My usual loading time/product resulted in a soapy mess looking like over-watered brushless cream goop. I have good handle on my wet shaving technique and shaving gear and never have come across anything like this before. I do know that boars hog the lather before improving with future shaves but even my little Omega did not eat 3 times of the normal soap without burping on its first outing.
Right now the 620 just stands with some lather that I made and left it on the brush. The only promising part of brush is the handle, which I liked very much but it is on smaller side overall, for my liking. I wonder if this brush will improve to better lather making?
For the record I have 4 boar brushes from Omega and I keep them in regular use with MWF and other triple milled hard puck soaps. None of them is out of whack.
Omegas are not really known for nice handles so as a replacement for a nice handle and something more refined I got a Semogue 620 after reading the reviews here. Also chose 620 because I liked the knot insert cap in black colour whereas 610 was available only in red insert.
I didn’t like the fake badger effect but I knew it beforehand however what surprised me was the ‘plasticky’ and slippery feel of the hair on Semogue. I have never felt the Omega hair to be anything this smooth and plasticky feeling. Maybe because the hairs on every semogue brush are treated beyond silly?
It had little piggie funk smell but I just use the boars without pampering them for a shave. I don’t think I really liked the 620 in 50/22 knot because the treated hair were all floppy and lumpy after a rinse and the limp face feel did not convert me from Omega to Semogue.
All said, the biggest surprise was that in 3 shaves so far I had with this brush, it acted like a dodo. I used Stirling soap which is middle of road soap but nothing bad in terms of latherability. But semogue just refused to work and create a usable lather. It took me inordinate amount of elbow grease and almost triple mass of the soap to get a lather that somewhat looked like a lather I normally shave with.
My usual loading time/product resulted in a soapy mess looking like over-watered brushless cream goop. I have good handle on my wet shaving technique and shaving gear and never have come across anything like this before. I do know that boars hog the lather before improving with future shaves but even my little Omega did not eat 3 times of the normal soap without burping on its first outing.
Right now the 620 just stands with some lather that I made and left it on the brush. The only promising part of brush is the handle, which I liked very much but it is on smaller side overall, for my liking. I wonder if this brush will improve to better lather making?
For the record I have 4 boar brushes from Omega and I keep them in regular use with MWF and other triple milled hard puck soaps. None of them is out of whack.
